Toby Ann 2006

Never underestimate....

2011-06-14T14:20:00.000-05:00

.....what God will do to show you he is present in a situation.

While we were at the hospital iin Chapel Hill last week, we met the family in the room next to us. As it turns out, the little boy was adopted from China and had cleft lip and palate just like Toby Ann. As it turns out, he had the same surgeon as Toby Ann. As it turns out, he was from her same province in China. As it turns out, he was from her same CWI (orphanage) and they had the same guide we had when we traveled. You may not understand how big this is. Toby Ann is from Urumqi in the XinJiang province. the year that she was adopted, there were only 38 adoptions in the province (which is not many). There are 2 other orphanages besides hers in the province which contributed to that number. Some of those kids came to the US, but some went home to other countries. Her China friend was just a year older than her and came home to North Carolina a few months after her, so they would have likely played together in Urumqi. The probability of the two of them being in the same hospital with the same surgeon on the same day is staggering. This is the first time we have met a family with a child from Urumqi in person. It was an extra special blessing that only God could have arranged.

The two of them were so cute when they realized that they were together in China.

God is so good to give us these little blessings when we need them the most. :)

Pictures from the hospital

2011-06-14T14:08:00.000-05:00

Arriving at UNC Children's Hospital. She had her ipod all plugged in and she was listening to SCC sing Declaration of Dependence and dancing around. She takes the whole surgery thing in a very matter of fact way.

hanging out in the waiting room. She read me the book "Ruby Paints a Picture" while we waited. She read every word from start to finish.

dressed for surgery...still a happy girl.

Always a happy face.

The nurses gave her a sticker book and stickers...Kai Lan....her favorite.

Now happy and a little loopy...after the meds to make her more relaxed.

here we are, ready to go back to surgery

silly girl...

I am so happy that I get to go back with her until she is asleep. Some hospitals don't allow that. It sure makes things so much easier since she struggles with some seperation anxiety.

after surgery and back in the CSSU and all hooked up to monitors and stuff. There sure are a lot of things to un-hook or take with you when you need to potty.

having lunch the next day.....yummy pureed corn, mashed potatoes, and pureed pork roast...she ate some of the potatoes and a bite or two of corn.

dressed and ready to go home. yay!

She did well

2011-06-07T22:35:00.000-05:00

Toby Ann did really well today. She is such a trooper. No complaints even though she couldn't eat today and her surgery was in the afternoon. No complaints that she couldn't drink, even though she was thirsty for sure. No complaints even though she knew she was going in for surgery and would come out in pain......after all, she's done this a bunch of times before and she knew what she was in for. So, basically she did what no grown-up could do. She simple didn't complain.

Now she is sleeping in her bed. She's been throwing up....part of the experience for her I guess. She was just past the throwing up and was just feeling the effects of the meds they gave her for that when she asked me about the "bed" I would be sleeping on. She took one look at it and knew that it wouldn't be comfy. So despite everything, she chose to be worried about me. She said, "why do you have to sleep there? I can share my bed with you. It's softer. I can move way over and make room." if we could all love like her and care like her, the world would be so different. She blows me away everyday and I learn from her constantly what it is to love truly and deeply and without condition.

Surgery went well, but we won't know the entirety of the results for a while, so please keep praying for the best of both worlds....no apnea and good speech.

Praising God tonight for his mercy and his grace and his amazing gift of prayer and of course for this amazing little gift snoozing beside me.

Surgery Update

2011-06-06T16:24:00.000-05:00

Toby Ann is supposed to arrive at the hospital in Chapel Hill at noon Tuesday, June 7. I'm guessing that means her surgery will be around 1:30ish.

Surgery tomorrow ......June 7

2011-06-06T12:07:00.000-05:00

Toby Ann and I will be checking in at the UNC Children's hospital sometime tomorrow for Toby Ann's next surgery. She will be having a division of the pharyngeal flap (p-flap). Toby Ann origianally had p-flap surgery in February, 2010. P-flap surgery involves grafting tissue from the back of the throat to create a flap at the back of the palate behind the uvula. The purpose of the p-flap surgery was to improve speech. Without the flap, Toby Ann did not have the ability to produce certain sounds in speech, for example the "g" sound (like in the word girl) and the "k" sound. After her surgery, Toby Ann had amazing improvement in her speech. She found new confidence socially because she could now be better understood by her peers. Before the surgery, she would never sing because she struggled with speech. Now she sings.

Now on to the present situation. Toby Ann's surgery tomorrow will remove the p-flap. Sadly, this could un-do the improvements in speech. Without the flap, she will no longer have the oral mechanics to make the sounds that she gained. Now you are asking why are we having a surgery that could potentially un-do progress that we went to great lengths to make.

The fact is, as with anything that has the potential for amazing gain, there was a risk. The risk for apnea. Now Toby Ann has sleep apnea. The flap is only a part of the problem. The reason that the flap caused apnea has to do with Toby Ann's nasal airways. We now know that on the cleft side she has no nasal airway; on the other side, her nasal airway is very tiny. So, to make a long story short, the added tissue at the back of her palate would have been fine if she didn't have the other issues, but together, they result in apnea. We were hopeful that her huge tonsils were the issue, but after getting her tonsils out 4 months ago, she is still struggling with apnea. While the decision to potentially un-do progress in speech was heartbreaking, breathing has to come first....obviously.

So, tomorrow, her amazing, wonderful platic surgeon will go in and revise her flap. He is going to do everything he can to do it in a way to help maintain her speech improvements. He will be doing another nasal endoscopy to see how things are now and making a decision on how much of the flap to take down. The origional plan was division of the flap (which is actually removal), but there is a slight possibility that he will be able to leave some of it. It will all depend on what the scope tells him.

Another concern about the surgery is pain. This type of surgery is pretty painful. Toby Ann is not one to complain, which is good and bad. Sometimes she suffers needlessly. Also, she has had trouble with the pain meds the last couple of times, so she may have to stay in the hospital 2 nights rather than just one, for pain management.

Other concerns have to do with family. Since we have a lot of kids, we have to divide and conquer....so I will be going with Toby Ann to the hospital while Morgan holds down the fort. Morgan is an amazing father and he handles this very well, but doing it alone can be tough when you are used to a partnership. I have taken Toby Ann for a bunch of surgeries alone, so I know I can handle that....but it's tough to care for her, stay by her side while trying to find a way to keep myself fed. When she is hurting she doesn't want me to leave her side, so just going to the bathroom can be a challenge.....going out of the room long enough to get some food is really tough. After the surgery, the recovery will be painful, we know. Also, Toby Ann will have major restrictions on her diet for a few weeks (applesauce consistency pureed diet for 2-3 weeks and then soft foods for another week or two after that).

So, all of that being said, we need some prayers. If you could pray for these things, we would appreciate it so much:
1. safe travel to and from Chapel Hill
2. safe and successful surgery for Toby Ann
3. wisdom for her doctors and caregivers to make the right decisions
4. good results from the surgery (an end to the apnea while maintaining her current level of speech)
5. quick recovery/good pain management post-op
6. smooth sailing at home while I am away
7. me finding a way to eat and take care of some very basic needs for myself while caring for Toby Ann in the hospital
8. patience with the food restrictions

Thanks so much for your support and prayers during this time. I will be updating the blog while we are at the hospital and of course, updates on facebook for those who are connected with me there.

2011-06-01T08:42:00.002-05:00

Headed back to Chapel Hill......again!

2011-06-01T08:32:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow we will be going down that road to Chapel Hill again. This time it is for a pre-op appointment for surgery that Toby Ann will have next week (June 7).

This will be surgery #4 in the last 16 months.

I'll be posting the particulars in the next few days, so stay tuned.

Excuses, excuses.....

2011-06-01T08:27:00.001-05:00

Okay. Here come the excuses. I have fallen down on my blog duties. Life just seems to be too busy. I have a couple of blogs and they were created for specific purposes. This blog was meant to tell the story of Toby Ann, our journey to China to bring her home, and life after she was home. When I started this blog, I had no idea what God had in store for our family. I had no idea that in just a little over a year home with Toby Ann, he would start us on another journey....but He did. So I started another blog. The new blog told the story of our journey to Ethiopia to bring home 3 sisters. I vowed to keep up both blogs and, alas, I have failed. I have told the story of their journey home and then updated only rarely.

So, here I am, asking myself why I blog to begin with. Well, at first it was for me. It was a journal. When we traveled to China, it was for our friends and family. A way to let them experience our journey with us. After we were home, it became something else all together. One day I learned that our blog had touched a family in a way that changed their lives....and the life of a child in China. That family, having experienced through our blog the adoption of a cleft affected child, was able to make a decision to adopt a cleft affected child. So, because of our sweet Toby Ann, another child was brought out of an orphanage and given the family and medical care that she could never have had otherwise. Then we heard that yet another child was adopted, because our blog helped the family see that the special need of cleft lip and palate was not so scary. And then another child.....

We don't have any way of knowing how many lives have been changed by Toby Ann's story, but I will continue to tell her story here in hopes that more lives can be changed. This blog will continue to be specifically about Toby Ann and her experiences, surgeries and daily life.

I also plan to maintain the "Bringin' Home the Girls" blog and use it to post when Ethiopian culture is a focus or when older child/sibling group adoption is being discussed. With 147 million orphans world wide, it is my hope that people will see our family and be moved to adopt....especially older children and kids with special needs because they have a harder time getting placed in homes.

I have started a new family blog! We have a big beautiful family and most of what I'll have to say on that blog will be about daily life in the family God created us to be. Here's the link to the new blog:

Life with Real Kids

As I look back over this post, I am actually amused at myself. In typical me fashion, I have stated that I am too busy to keep up with this blog and then went on to say that not only am I going to keep it up, I'm going to keep up a second one and start a third blog....such is my life. I have always bitten off more than I could chew.....Let's just give it a shot and see what happens. :)

Little Aunts All over the Place.....and an Uncle

2011-03-21T21:26:00.000-05:00

To read all about it, click the link below for the article on our other blog......

BABY MAX

recovering nicely

2011-03-16T10:39:00.000-05:00

I wanted to write a quick little post to let you all know that Toby Ann is recovering nicely from her most recent suregery. After a bumpy few days that included some problems with pain meds and antibiotics that resulted in the throw ups (not good when you have had surgery on your throat), she is well and pretty much pain free and back at school. Thanks so much for your prayers. Please continue to pray that the surgery would be successful in treating her apnea. We won't know how things are for another month or so.

Here's Toby Ann and a few of her horsey friends sleeping peacefully. She still loves her horses!

Surgery ....again

2011-02-28T21:35:00.000-05:00

For the third time in a year, TOby Ann had surgery today. This time it was a tonsillectomy. pretty routine stuff for most kids, but for her there is a lot riding on it. Last year in
February, Toby Ann had a graft, called a p-flap. I won't go into all the details, but this graft at the back of her palate has allowed amazing improvement in her speech. As it turns out, she has huge tonsils and now that the flap is in place there isn't room for them, and she developed apnea. There was no way to know if removing the tonsils would take care of the apnea or if the flap itself is an issue. So today, she had her tonsils out. They did a nasal endoscopy, too, and learned that she has very small airways. So......given the new information, there is a chance that the tonsils coming out will help, but it's 50/50. only time will tell. Please pray that over the next handful of weeks, Toby Ann will have a nice recovery and an end to the apnea. The worst case scenario is that another surgery would have to be done at some point to take down the flap that was grafted in. Obviously we don't want to go there. Her original cleft was awfully large, so there are lots of things that have to be addressed. This was surgery 10 and she has a long way to go before everything is corrected so we dont want to backtrack.

The good news is that she is an amazingly brave little girl and she handles it all pretty well. Please join me in foraying for Toby Ann to recover well and with the desired results.

As always, thanks for your prayers and support. We are so blessed by that.

Breaking News: Over 26,000 Children Die in Terrible Disaster

2011-01-09T15:02:00.001-05:00

What if you turned on your TV, opened your newspaper, or opened your browser to see that headline plastered all over? What if it was scrolling across the bottom of your TV show with constant interruptions in programming to tell you the newest details? What if it was all over CNN and all over the internet? What if it was all over Time and Newsweek?

It would be terrible, heart wrenching news and we wouldn’t want to hear about it and at the same time we wouldn’t be able to stop ourselves from listening, hearing every detail and watching each interview.

Well, what if we went to bed and woke up to find that it had happened again the next day? Some disaster killed another 26,000? And then, what if it happened again the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and every day after that? What if we looked back to see that it had happened the day before, and the day before, and on back and back and back? Wouldn’t that be a disaster too horrible to stand? Wouldn’t we be mobilizing relief teams, giving donations, going to the rescue?

Well, the truth of the matter is that even though it’s not in the headlines, it’s not in the newspapers, it’s not on CNN or scrolling across the bottom of your screen and interrupting your programs, it is happening. Every day over 26,000 die in this disaster and the worst part is that it is preventable but we are not preventing it. These children are being lost to preventable disease and malnutrition; over 4,000 die each day because they don’t have clean water.....something we take for granted for sure.

How can we sit by and let it happen again tomorrow?

Why don’t we do something to stop it?

Why do we, who have clean water to drink from the tap, waste our money on bottled water when we could use those funds to build wells in Africa so children could have clean water to drink? Or why couldn’t we give those funds to provide water filtration systems in Asia?

Why do we sit and complain about the food we have to eat, always wanting something more or better, eating until we are fat? Why couldn’t we stop when we have had enough and use those extra funds to feed starving children around the world?

Why do we complain about healthcare in our own country (the system has issues, but we have excellent health care) when we could spend our energy finding ways to provide vaccines to children in Africa so that they don’t die from preventable disease?

Why do we, as Americans, so often keep our eyes on ourselves, always wanting more, always wanting something better, always focusing on the “American dream” when we could be lending a hand to someone else, saving a child from a preventable death. Why do we live in bigger and bigger houses while some sleep on the streets? Why do we complain about our hardships when others starve and freeze? How is it that we are able to sleep at night knowing that there are children on the streets, begging for food or forced into the sex trade in many places in the world? Oh, you didn’t know all that was happening? Well, you do now. So no more excuses. Lose some sleep over it! Give up some of your luxuries. Make a sacrifice to help prevent tomorrow’s headline. Place your outrage where it belongs. Insist that your government do more to help. Insist that your media tell the story. And stop living like there is nothing you can do to help.

Not sure where to start? Here are a couple of ideas:

World Vision
Compassion International

before and after

2010-06-24T11:31:00.000-05:00

I just can't seem to find the time to blog! I really do intend to keep up, but you all know about good intentions......

As you know from the last post, Toby Ann had surgery on June 1 to reconstruct her lip and nose. All I can say is wow.

Why wow? First of all, wow to Toby Ann! What an amazing kid she is....and quite a trooper. Never a complaint about pain. I know it hurt a lot, but she never complained. I would have to ask her about it over and over and she would finally admit that it hurt a little bit. I could always tell that she was hurting by the way that she was acting, but she would never complain. She took everything in stride. I was worried that she would be upset to be having surgery this time since the last one was so recent and so painful, but my worries were unfounded. She handled it all like a champ. That's so brave and actually makes me a little sad. It's a testament to the fact that she has had SO many surgeries. This last one brought the total to 8. 2 in China and 6 here. She is also very glad that she has me there with her in the hospital. A few days after her surgery in February, she looked up at me and said, "In China, no one stayed with me when I had surgery. I'm glad you were there with me." Her last surgery in China was just 3 weeks before we arrived to bring her home. Wow. Having someone who loves you by your side in a difficult time makes such a huge difference.

The second WOW is a wow to the surgeon and what he has been able to do. It's totally amazing that tissue can be moved from one place to the other and create stuff she didn't have and then that tissue moves and works allowing her to speak in a way that was not possible before (referring to the p-flap surgery in February). Then the same surgeon reconstructed her nose and lip and you will see the difference yourself. She now has a nose that has two working nostrils and her lips can come together and, as she discovered a couple of days ago, can now make a popping sound.
Here are some close-up before and after pictures.

The ones above are the before pictures. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but her left nostril was collapsed because the original cleft was huge and went through the nostril on that side. When they originally repaired her lip in China, they didn't have a lot of tissue to work with, so her lip was pulled up on that side.

These are the after pics... She is so happy with her little button nose that, as she puts it, "isn't flat on one side. Both sides are the same." Her lip no longer pulls up on the left side. These pictures were taken less than 3 weeks post-op, so there is still some redness and puffiness that will continue to heal. Her lip will need slight revisions as she grows and her facial features change. The change in her lip has improved the clarity of her speech and her nose is actually open and functions on both sides.

Thank you for all your prayers for healing. We have felt them!

prayers please

2010-05-28T21:46:00.000-05:00

Toby Ann will be having surgery again on Tuesday, June 1, at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill. This surgery will be to reconstruct her lip and nose. No, this is not the last surgery, just the next one in line. Hopefully we can have a break for a while after this.

Her surgery will be at 1:30 on the 1st and we will probably be at the hospital overnight. She will not be able to swim for 4 weeks and that's gonna be tough since school's out and that's what we do every day to keep us busy in the summer. We are going to have to find something else to do for the month of June. With our crowd, it's a bit of a challenge to keep everyone happy and boredom free.

Easter

2010-04-08T21:23:00.002-05:00

What a glorious day to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

latest news

2010-03-17T22:12:00.000-05:00

Toby Ann and I will travel to Chapel Hill tomorrow to see her surgeon for a 6 weeks post-op visit. She is really, really, really hoping that she will be able to eat something new. At this point she is still on soft foods with no bread or anything that goes down in a lump like bread.

The change in her speech is dramatic. We are so happy with the results of the surgery and so thankful for her awesome team in Chapel Hill. Toby Ann can already produce the following sounds when speaking that she could NOT produce before the surgery: "s" "sh" "ch" "g" (hard g like in girl), "k" and hard "c" ......amazing the difference those sounds make in understandable speech and amazing how much of our oral mechanics we take for granted every day. We are completely blown away by her quick progress. You can go to all the therapy in the world, but if you don't have the mechanics, you can not make the sounds.

Also, we just received confirmation that Toby Ann's next surgery will be on June 1....this June...as in less than three months from now. This surgery will revise her lip and nose. This will not only change the appearance of the lip and nose, but improve their function as well.

We thank you for all of your prayers and appreciate any prayers you can offer as we approach a second suregery so soon.

We'll be sure to let you know what the doctors say tomorrow about her healing and especially about the food....Toby Ann is hoping she can eat crunchy stuff.

oops....sorry I didn't share the news

2010-02-22T14:44:00.001-05:00

Well, we did go to Chapel Hill and things are looking great so far. She still has sutures that will disolve/work their way out, she still has some healing to do and she still has a restricted diet.....soft foods, no crunchy, chewy, sticky foods including bread and pizza. So now at least Toby Ann can have her mac and cheese without putting it in the food processor first! Still no candy or chips or cookies or crackers for at least 4 more weeks. When we go back for the next recheck maybe she'll get the all clear.

Her speech is coming along very nicely. It's amazing how much more clearly she is speaking. We rarely have to ask her to repeat herself....I'm sure she is thrilled to not have to say each thing 10 times!

Toby Ann was glad to get the word that she can return to preschool! She was so excited that first day back!

Thanks again to all of you who have been praying. We firmly believe in the power of prayer and are so thankful to have praying friends across the country who have been lifting us up.

Silly, happy girl

latest update

2010-02-18T00:11:00.000-05:00

Well, it comes as no surprise that we had snow again this week. Toby Ann just had to go out on the porch, in her very eclectic jammies (she put this ensemble together herself) and catch some snowflakes. Afterall, snowflakes are pretty soft, melt in your mouth with no effort and are at least as easy on the mouth as any applesauce consistency food. It didn't snow enough to get out and play, but it was pretty while it lasted.

Tomorrow (actually, today...Thursday) we go to Chapel Hill for the first post-op visit. We are hoping and praying for a good report, news that everything is healing perfectly and even hoping to get the diet expanded a little. Toby Ann is hoping she will be told she can return to preschool. She really misses her friends!

Please pray with us that we will have safe travel and receive good news.

Thanks, ya'll!

here are a couple of Valentine shots ......aren't they the sweetest?

super quick update

2010-02-15T00:06:00.000-05:00

I just wanted everyone to know that Toby Ann is doing great. She is feeling great and she is relatively pain free. She is super annoyed that she can't eat any of the Valentine Chocolate that she received at school and other placesl, but she is handling that with very little complaint. She is saving it all for when the Dr. says it's okay. She says that her sisters' chocolate will be all gone and she will still have lots to eat when she finally can.

I have a lots of Valentine and Chinese New year pics to post, but not tonight. I'm pooped.

This is Toby Ann and her Chinese Dragon that we made to celebrate Chinese New Year today.

恭賀新禧

happy new year!

tuesday update

2010-02-09T13:09:00.000-05:00

Toby Ann is doing so well! She is not complaining of any pain at this point, but she is not one to complain unless it's pretty bad.....I think her pain is mostly gone though.

The part of the work that I can see in her mouth seems to be healing nicely. I'm no expert, but it looks pretty good so far. Most of what they did really can't be seen.

She is not sleeping so great, but that is to be expected. The diet is still pureed until we hear different, which will be at least the 18th when we go back for our first post-op visit.

She is talking well and sounding so different than before the surgery. It's not just the sounds she is able to make that have changed, but the whole sound of her actual voice. We can't wait to see what speech she will gain from this surgery, since we can tell a big difference already. She notices it, too because she is just talking away.

She is almost finished with taking her antibiotics, which is super yucky tasting. The bad news is that she will have to take the zantac (for her silent GERD that was discovered while in the hospital) indefinitely, and that stuff is apparently really gross. We are having to work hard to get her to take it. Hopefully she will get used to it as part of her routine. We will be visiting our pediatrician about the GERD and may be referred to a specialist. I'll keep you posted about that.

medicine is yucky!

2010-02-07T22:07:00.000-05:00

Toby Ann really hates to take her medicine. In her words, "it's really, really yucky!" It always takes a lot of persuading. Sometimes we have to call in the reinforcements.....Evie is so good with Toby Ann and can usually talk her into taking the yucky stuff without much trouble. What a great sister she is.

Toby Ann is doing better today. I thought her fever was gone this morning, but it returned this afternoon. hopefully today is the last day of that! Her pain is decreasing and she is drinking and eating well. We still have a couple of weeks, at least, of the pureed diet. She has finally (mostly) resigned herself to the fact that she can't have the same food as everyone else in the house. She is really a trooper.

I am still sleeping with her at night, mostly to make me feel better. Because of the surgery and the healing process, she is snoring and experiencing some apnea. This is a common side effect of this particular surgery and should improve over the next few weeks.

Saturday Update

2010-02-07T01:16:00.000-05:00

We are seeing improvement everyday for Toby Ann. She is definitely still not her usual self, but feeling better all the time. I got my first look inside her mouth today. Her lips were so swollen from being stretched and held open wide in the surgery and she couldn't open her mouth very far before now, so there was no use asking her for a peak. Today she asked me to look inside and I did. ewwww. No wonder she is in pain. I can't see most of the area they worked on because it is up behind other stuff, but the area around the uvula is in plain view and I can see what they did there. amazing. Her cleft at birth had been huge and complete and had split the uvula. When the original palate repair was done in China, there wasn't a lot of tissue to work with. This left her palate short and her uvula tiny and bifurcated (split in two or forked). Her uvula is no longer bifurcated and things look pretty good back there. There are obviously still sutures and stuff, and things are red and swollen, but I am so amazed at the work done by her awesome plastic surgeon. I can't see the stuff behind there....the flap that was grafted to close the airway properly in speech.

It's amazing what we take for granted. In the absence of birth defects, each of is born with the oral mechanics to produce sounds in speech. We are unaware of what is in there that makes us speak. We go about our business everyday, speaking clearly and never knowing, or caring to think why or how.

We are looking forward to continued healing and improvements tomorrow and anxiously waiting for the day when Toby Ann is pain free.

Just wait til you hear her new little voice. So cute.

Another update

2010-02-06T01:13:00.000-05:00

Well, we arrived home from the hospital yesterday afternoon. Toby Ann was glad to be home, glad to see all of her family, but not glad to eat or drink anything. She was still in a lot of pain. The donor site (back of the throat) for the tissue that was used to make the p-flap at the back of her palate was very painful. Her throat was also sore because of the breathing tube that was used during surgery. Her neck and head were hurting badly....the neck pain comes from the position of the head for 4.5 hours during the surgery....the headache comes from the neck being tight and sore I guess. On top of that, she was having tummy troubles from all the anesthesia and pain meds. Needless to say, we had a rough evening and night. Late last night, she finally decided she would try to swallow some food and take some sips of drink. I was so relieved that she was finally ready to swallow....until the vomitting started. She wanted to eat and drink, but everything came back up. Over night was rough and so was the morning. Late in the morning, she was finally able eat something and keep it down. Naturally, all she wanted to drink was my Diet Mtn. Dew....which was fine with me as long as she drank something (I was so afraid we were going to have to go back and get some IV fluids if the no drinking issue continued). I did go out and buy a caffeine free one, just for her - yes, in this weather!

Toby Ann's dietary restrictions are pretty tight.....only foods that are applesauce consistancy. This is a challenge with a house full of kids eating pizza and chips and cookies. She is handling it pretty well so far and her sisters are being good about being sensative to the issue. Evie has amazed us with her level of care and understanding for Toby Ann's situation. What a wonderful big sister she is. She even sat by her side when Toby Ann was really sick and throwing up last night. She stroked her hair and comforted her. Evie has also been encouraging Toby Ann to take some yucky medicines. She is able to get her to take it without much fuss. We are so blessed with amazing kids!

Here's Evie loving on her little sister, who she sweetly calls "Kitty" because Toby Ann is fond of pretending to be a cat.

We are noticing some changes in Toby Ann's speech already. For one thing, she is able to make an "s" sound now, whereas before, she could only make the "s" sound if she held her nose to keep the air from escaping. We noticed this when she was talking about our dog Sally this morning. This is exactly what we were hoping for. Not only can she make new sounds, her voice is so different now. We were all so used to the way she sounded before, and have been taken a bit by surprise. Her speech will continue to adjust as everything heals up, but we can tell a huge difference already. Ruby even noticed the difference and has said more than one time today that Toby Ann now sounds like Lilly on Hannah Montana......(of course it would have to be someone from that show!) The thing is, even another 4 year old can tell that her sound is different.

As the day has gone on, she has continued to improve. She is deffinitely not feeling quite like her usual self, she is still in quite a bit of pain, but things are turning around. One of her doctors, Dr. Liau, said that day three should be the turnaround day and he was right.

I do want to say a few things that I haven't had a chance to say. First, I want to say how much we love Dr. van Aalst, Toby Ann's plastic surgeon. He is amazingly kind and caring, not to mention wonderfully talented. We are so thankful for him and all that he has done to repair Toby Ann's palate. I just can't say enough good stuff about him and the whole craniofacial team at UNC.

Also, I want to thank all of the wonderful friends and family who followed along here and on facebook and prayed for us, sent us encouraging messages and called to check on us. Thanks to the Baptist Home preschool, who showed such love for Toby Ann with their gifts and cards and calls. Thanks to my mom and her sister for coming to Chapel Hill early Thursday morning so that I would have Mom in the car with me for the ride home. It was great to have Mom there to care for Toby Ann so I could drive us safely home. Thanks to my wonderful husband, Morgan, who held down the fort at home, through all those school cancelations with a stir crazy house full of little girls with lots of energy. He is just the best Dad ever!

Toby Ann is such a trooper. She has a lot behind her in this journey and a lot left to go. Every time she has a surgery, people ask if this is the last one. Unfortunately, the answer is no. There are many surgeries left to go and the next one could be as early as this August. The good news is, we have come SO far already!

Toby Ann in China at approximately 6 months

we are home

2010-02-04T16:38:00.000-05:00

We arrived home this afternoon. Toby Ann is so glad to be back at home and to see her siblings and her daddy. She is still feeling yucky. The p-flap procedure will take some time to heal. So now we have the limited diet to deal with, along with the fact that everything hurts and she doesn't want to eat or drink and even taking her pain meds and antibiotics and stuff is painful.

Please pray that we can get her meds and some liquids in her.

tomorrow should be better. Pray that it will be. My heart is breaking for her.

just a quick update

2010-02-03T18:12:00.000-05:00

Toby Ann is resting in her room. She is alternating between sleeping and snoring away and crying. When she does wake a little, she is not too thrilled with the situation. In her words, "I want to get out of here. I want to go home."

Poor baby! She has had a tough day. She was in the OR for about 4.5 hours all together. The dental work ended up taking a lot longer and being much more involved than expected. They were planning one crown and a filling (where her teeth rub together because of her cross bite, and ended up with one root canal, 4 crowns, and an extraction plus a bunch of xrays and sealants. We have some dental issues that have come out of nowhere since her last dental exam when all of this was planned. Apparently she has GERD....the silent version....in other words there are no symptoms of reflux that we can tell, until now when the dentist discovered that the silent acid reflux has eaten the enamel off of her teeth and now all of her molars are flat and discolored. We had noticed the change in appearance of her teeth, but only very recently. Now we are likely to be referred to a peds gastroenterologist for a problem that we didn't even know we had and she will definitely start on some meds for reflux. Bless her sweet little heart!

As far as the planned procedures, they went well. The plastic surgeon reports that all went well with the p-flap and that she should have a change in speech sounds pretty immediately.....that is, after she decides that she wants to talk since it kind of hurts right now :(

Allyn has been a great comfort to me today and I am so thankful that she was able to be here. She has to return to Greensboro tonight so that she can be rested for a big exam in the morning. So, I'll be here alone tonight and until we go home (which should be tomorrow). Pray for Allyn as she is feeling bad about leaving us here alone. Throw in a prayer for Morgan as he holds down the fort at home.

Please continue to pray especially for Toby Ann. This particular surgery is pretty painful to recover from (after all, they took the tissue from the back of her throat to make the flap at the back of the palate). She is resisting fluids and foods and is crying a lot. It's just hard to know that she is so uncomfortable. We could really use some prayers for the trip home. 3 hours in the car with her level of discomfort and just the two of us is sure to be a challenge.

We are praying for God's comforting hand to be felt and for his healing touch to be present.

I'll try to keep you posted.

Thanks for your love and support and most of all, your prayers.

Toby Ann is in surgery now

2010-02-03T09:33:00.000-05:00

Toby Ann's went back to surgery around 8:30. They will do the dental work first and then the p-flap procedure on her palate.

She was in a good mood at the hotel this morning and handled the fact that she couldn't eat or drink just fine.

She got to talk to Daddy when we arrived at the hospital. She misses him!

Here she is sporting her very stylish hospital jammies and bracelets!

Here we are ready to go back to the OR. I was so glad that the anesthesiologist was so kind and allowed me to go back with her and stay with her until she was asleep. In this picture you can tell they had given her some "happy juice" to relax her a bit.

Thanks for praying!

Pre-op day

2010-02-02T23:35:00.000-05:00

It's been a long day, but just for kicks, lets call it an adventure.

The adventure actually started last night when we rolled into Chapel Hill and discovered that they don't know what to do when snow falls this far east.....I guess snow just doesn't happen all that often around here and they lack the equipment, etc. to handle it. Anyway, not being critical, but when I left home where there was 10 inches of snow and traveled east, where there was a lot less, I didn't expect to find streets and parking lots in much worse condition.....It just hadn't occurred to me, I guess. The street outside my hotel looked like this

So, I was glad I brought the right car! No troubles. Just adventures. ;)

This morning it took forever to get over to the hospital for the pre-op stuff. But we were on time. We had three appointments, one for the surgeon, one for the dental office to sign paperwork and stuff and one with a nurse to get all the rules about what not to do before we come in the morning.

Here's Toby Ann when we arrived at Children's Hospital....she loves this thing! I don't know what you call it, but it is really cool.

Here's Toby Ann waiting in peds plastic surgery

Here's Toby Ann waiting in pre-care where we got the rules....she took time out to "read" New Yorker

Here's Toby Ann outside the dental school where we went to sign papers and pay for the dental work she is having while she is under anesthesia. Because of Toby Ann's cleft her teeth are not aligned which causes dental issues. She needs a crown and some other stuff. We'll see what all they end up doing.

This is the picture Toby Ann drew of me.....I think I am looking a little frazzled at this point :)

Don't you love my knees and ankles? And those nice long toes.

She took time to get into mischief in the snow....after all this is an adventure, right?

Well, when we left the hospital and got out to the parking deck, I discovered that Toby Ann had opened one of the back doors of the car a little bit without me knowing it.....so the car was sitting there for hours, in a parking deck with 3 doors locked and one door open.....with all our stuff in there. Luggage. Laptop. GPS. Portable DVD player. everything. However.....none of it had been touched. It was all there. Praising God for looking out for us!

We finally made it out of the hospital and off the campus and arrived at Elmo's. If you haven't been there, Elmo's is a diner and it has become our tradition to take Toby Ann there every time we come to Chapel Hill for cleft stuff. We have gone there every time we have ever taken her....and that's a lot! (sorry for the grainy picture....this one and a couple of others were taken with my phone)

While we were at Elmo's Toby Ann decided to practice her name....I was surprised when she went beyond Toby Ann and added the He Ping part....she did it all herself, except the g....i helped her write that one.

then our adventure took us to Target and the the poor baby crashed! So we went to the hotel

Where she practiced her letters and tested the bed. This is a different hotel from last night. we've had this one booked for tonight for a while, but when we needed to add Monday night at the last minute, it didn't work out, so we stayed somewhere else last night. This is an adventure right? you have to mix it up a little.

Toby Ann was so excited when Allyn arrived. She has been missing everyone at home and she was so happy to see her big sister.

She even shared her mac and cheese with her.

Now Toby Ann is sleeping soundly and I need to be! We have to be at the hospital by 7:00am tomorrow. I think her surgery will start around 9, but I will update you all in the morning after they take her back. She should be in surgery for about 3 hours....it could be more or less depending on the dental portion.

She is having the Pharyngeal flap (p flap) suregery and if you want to read a little about it, follow this link to a wikipedia article.....

p-flap surgery info

Thanks for all the prayers! Keep them coming!

resting peacefully

2010-02-01T23:06:00.000-05:00

thanks for the prayers

in a hotel.....waiting for tomorrow

2010-02-01T21:44:00.000-05:00

Toby Ann and I decided to travel to Chapel Hill today so that we could beat that nasty weather in the forecast for tomorrow. So, here we are in a hotel. She is having trouble getting to sleep and has just declared that she wants to go home. :(

Before we left the house, a special package was delivered for Toby Ann. It was a sweet gift from her preschool class and some get well cards made by the various classes at her preschool. She was so thrilled to open up the gift!

She also enjoyed a phone call on the way here from her preschool teacher, Miss Lori.

Toby Ann is missing all her siblings and her daddy. She talked to them on the phone after we got here and that made her grin!

I'll bet she has said a hundred times, "I miss Evie, I miss Ruby, I miss Daisy, I miss Daddy, I miss Tucker......." She had some special candy after dinner and she saved some of it so she could share it with them in a few days when she is back home. What a sweet spirit she has!

Allyn is joining us tomorrow evening, so maybe that will help! She doesn't get to see her biggest sister very often, so that will be a treat.

I think she has finally drifted off to sleep now. She is resting with the full knowledge that she is loved. Thank you all for the prayers and well wishes. They are felt by all of us!

I will plan to update here tomorrow when I hear the times for her Wednesday surgery.

good night all.

Look Mommy, I got a present!

2010-01-29T20:31:00.000-05:00

Toby Ann came home from speech therapy today with a big pink bag. She got out of the car (Morgan took her) and ran up to the door shouting, "Look Mommy, I got a present! Miss Suzie gave it to me!"

She was so proud of the sweet gift from Miss Suzie. Lots of fun things for our trip to the hospital and the recovery period.

Toby Ann isn't worried about her surgery. She is really at peace about the whole thing (I'm nervous! I can't stand to see any of my babies in pain!). I guess she is used to it by now. This will be the 7th surgery of her life so far. Unfortunately, there are several more to come. She's a trooper!

haircut

2010-01-28T15:43:00.000-05:00

This is Toby Ann before the haircut.

This is the first snip.

Toby Ann LOVES her new haircut. She was so excited to be going to get the cut, that she has been asking me for days, "Is my haircut tomorrow?" Finally yesterday in the early afternoon she said, "I want it to be dark. I want it to be time for bed." When I asked her why, she said, "because then my haircut would be sooner."

After the cut, we got in the car to go home and she said, "I want her to put my hair back on. I want it to be long." I said, "Toby Ann, it will take a long time for your hair to grow that long again. I thought you wanted it short." She laughed her adorable laugh and said, "I'm just joking, Silly. I don't want long hair. I love it short."

Funny kid!

2 more weeks

2010-01-18T00:38:00.003-05:00

It's just weeks until Toby Ann's surgery. There is so much going on here all the time, I haven't really had a lot of time to dwell on it....which is a good thing. At this point I am trying to get all my ducks in a row. This surgery experience will be quite different. Morgan and I have both traveled and stayed with Toby Ann in the past, but now, with so many little ones in the house, we will have to divide an conquer. I will be traveling to Chapel Hill on February 2 with Toby Ann and Morgan will stay at home with the rest of our bunch. On the second, Toby Ann will have all of her pre-op appointments and get ready for the big day. We'll stay in a hotel that night and then arrive at the hospital in the morning on the 3rd. At this point, we think her surgery will be around 10:30 but we won't know for sure until the day before.

I was really worried, but as God would have it, Allyn has no classes or clinicals on Wednesdays so she will be able to come down and hang out with me. This is a huge relief! I was really worried about staying the night at the hospital without Morgan to help me since Toby Ann will be so upset if I leave her side to get food or go to the bathroom....Last time I held her all night after surgery and all day until time to leave the hospital. Morgan waited on me hand and foot (can I go on record here as saying that he is the best daddy and husband in the world?!)so that I would be able to focus on Toby Ann. If you know her, you know that she is a huge mama's girl. She loves her daddy, but when she is sick or hurting, only mama will do!

Allyn will have to leave in the early morning hours on Thursday and I suspect Toby Ann and I will leave the hospital sometime later that day (if she is doing well).

Now I just have to work out how to get a groggy Toby Ann and all our stuff to the parking deck when we leave the children's hospital......

Still working out the logistics. Please continue to hold us all in your prayers. This will be the first surgery Toby Ann has had since her sisters came home, so I'm not sure how that is going to affect them. Toby Ann seems to be at peace with the surgery at this point....among other things, she's pretty excited that she will be able to make the "s" sound without holding her nose closed and she is eager to be understood.... but I am sure she will be very frightened when the surgery day arrives. As always, I pray for a successful procedure, minimal pain, quick recovery, and the least scary experience possible.....this is just the "next" surgery, definitely not the last and I don't want the fear factor to escalate.

Please start praying now.....

2010-01-06T00:01:00.003-05:00

Toby Ann will be having her next surgery February 3. It's been scheduled for months and it seemed so far away. Now I am finding that, once again, time has flown by. It's just 4 weeks away and it definitely needs to be covered in prayer.

The surgery will be a revision to her palate. Because Toby Ann's cleft was so wide, when it was repaired she was left with a short palate (front to back). This does not allow her to get the proper closure at the back when she is speaking and air flows up the back of her throat and out her nose, causing her to be unable to produce many sounds in speech. Her palate needs to be lengthened to make closure at the back possible. She has been in speech therapy since she was 2, but therapy simply cannot fix everything. She lacks the oral mechanics for clear speech. If the surgery goes as planned, it will allow her, after additional therapy, to speak clearly and be understood clearly for the first time in her life. Since her last surgery she has improved drastically in speech, going from being able to produce only the m, n, and vowel sounds to speaking in sentences and producing many sounds. However, people who are not around her daily have great difficulty understanding her when she speaks.

As you can imagine, this is very frustrating for her! We understand her at home most of the time, but still there are times when even we can't understand her. The wonderful thing about Toby Ann is that she is such a joyful little thing and has an AMAZING sense of humor for a child her age. She takes it all in stride most of the time and repeats things as many times as needed for us to get it.

So, it is with great anticipation and anxiety, that I look ahead to this surgery. While I do not like the thoughts of her being in the hospital, being in surgery for hours, and having a not-so-pleasant recovery involving hugely restricted diet and other limitations that are difficult for an almost 5 year old, I am excited about the possibilities for her. How freeing it would be to finally be really heard!

Please, please, please, join with me and Morgan and our family in prayer for Toby Ann. Please pray that the surgery would go as planned and be even more successful than we could hope for or imagine. Pray that God's hand will guide that of her surgeon (the awesome Dr. van Aalst at UNC) and that God's healing hand would touch Toby Ann in a special way and allow for a quick recovery with fantastic results.

Pray also for our big family as we all step out on this journey with her. Help each one to be a comfort and support to her in the days following surgery. 3 of Toby Ann's sisters have not been here for one of her surgeries, so this will be a new and possibly scary experience for them.

Because of the size and dynamics of our family, it will be necessary for us to "divide and conquer" so I will be heading off to Chapel Hill with Toby Ann for a few days while Morgan holds down the fort here with the other kids. Pray for both of us in these endeavors.

Many thanks to you all in advance for your prayers and thoughts in the weeks preceding her surgery, for your prayers during the event and for your prayers as she recovers.

I will update here before the surgery and let you know as many details as possible so you will know exactly when to pray the hardest.

Christmas Day pics finally posted!

2010-01-04T20:03:00.004-05:00

More Christmas stuff posted on the other blog.....this is the last of it!

Here is the link!

Christmas Day

more to see......

2009-12-30T00:12:00.002-05:00

check out these posts on our other blog:

Christmas #3

Christmas Eve

Two peas in a pod

2009-12-29T22:15:00.005-05:00

Here are our "twins from 2 continents" Toby Ann and Ruby.....they are like two little peas in a pod (sometimes ;) )

They definitely look like they are up to something!

Christmas baby dolls

Hey, Ruby, kiss your baby...................................... Like this?

They are so sweet with their soft new babies from Granny!

check this out!

2009-12-28T00:01:00.002-05:00

I have posted a bunch of new pictures and stuff on our other blog. Check it out at these links:

From Thanksgiving to Lots of Christmas

Lots of Christmas 1

Lots of Christmas 2

There will be more added as I get time! Hope ya'll had a Merry Christmas!

Then and Now

2009-12-18T23:09:00.008-05:00

Today was Toby Ann's "Gotcha Day" or family day, or adoption day, or whatever you prefer to call it. That is the anniversary of the day that we were finally with our sweet girl in China.

Toby Ann loved her "Gotcha Day" gifts that we bought in China. She got a Tiger hat and some really cute embroidered shoes. Ruby wanted some shoes like that....too bad they came from thousands of miles away!

Three years ago today we were in China and holding Toby Ann in our arms for the first time. It seems like only yesterday! I don't know where the time goes. I have a lot more to say on the subject, but that will have to wait a day or two....maybe I'll have a little more time to post. For now, here are a couple more pictures. One from then. One from now.

This is me, holding Toby Ann He-Ping for the first time....and me holding her today.

We praise God each day for the beautiful gift of Toby Ann. We are truly blessed!

sweet

2009-12-03T22:24:00.003-05:00

Toby Ann is crazy about candy canes. She's had her eye on them in the store since Halloween, so she was excited when I finally bought some. Her sisters had never tried candy canes before, so I wasn't sure who would like them. Strangely enough, everyone loves them (that's actually rare with any food...usually 3 people love it and 1 person hates it). I think Toby Ann was secretly hoping that no one else would like them so there would be more for her ;)

Here's Toby Ann and Ruby being sweet ...and silly!

Life is always entertaining at our house!

'tis the season

2009-11-25T22:39:00.003-05:00

Tonight we went to Tanglewood to see the lights. Ruby, Daisy and Evie didn't know what to expect since they had never seen Christmas lights before. Toby Ann was excited since she ad been before. Sally, our new puppy went with us. We had a great time and everyone loved it!

Toby Ann and Sally getting ready for the lights.

Love this picture! What sweeties.

feast

2009-11-18T21:44:00.003-05:00

Toby Ann's preschool had their Thanksgiving feast today. They dressed as Pilgrims and Indians and ate a "traditional" feast of chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and other stuff like that....you know, everything the Pilgrims had at the first feast ;)

It was so sweet!

Ariel (a.k.a. Toby Ann)

2009-10-29T21:27:00.004-05:00

Toby Ann is going to be Ariel (the Little mermaid) for Halloween this year. She had a chance to wear her costume to ballet class earlier this week and I was able to snap a few shots......

Toby Ann was quick to let me know that a) the marabou stole was itchy and b) the dress twirls nicely when you spin around and c) the clip-on princess earrings liked to fall off. the spinny twirly thing was such a huge positive that she didn't let a and c bother her at all.

What a happy girl!

Under the Table and Dreaming......

2009-10-25T10:38:00.001-05:00

broomsticks....

2009-10-21T13:53:00.004-05:00

Yes. This broomstick is REALLY standing alone. Try it before the 23rd....use an angled broom and it will sit up on its own. If it doesn't work at first, turn it a little until it stands. The direction it is pointed in makes a difference. I am told that this will work until the 23rd of this month because of the way the planets are lined up.....

fall festival

2009-10-21T13:28:00.002-05:00

Toby Ann's preschool had a great fall festival this morning and we had a blast. It all started with a pancake breakfast and continued on with all kinds of fun! Toby Ann picked her pumpkin from the "pumpkin patch," went to the face painting booth, decorated her pumpkin, played in the bounce house, did the ring toss, made a craft and went on the hay ride! What a fun event!

fairies

2009-10-19T20:02:00.003-05:00

Don't know what these fairies flew through, but.....

......they flew through it TOGETHER.

love

2009-10-10T23:01:00.003-05:00

now that's love

tootsie rolls

2009-10-10T20:20:00.002-05:00

When a four year old asks for a piece of candy and you say "yes, just one" ..........

minutes later you turn around and this is what you find:

And here she is with the evidence. When questioned about the number of wrappers, she said, "but Mom, I like candy"

I couldn't find it in me to be mad with this sweet little grin looking up at me! :)

Talk like a pirate day.....

2009-09-19T20:23:00.002-05:00

Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day! Check out this post on our other blog

http://rubydaisyandevie.blogspot.com/2009/09/arrr-happy-talk-like-pirate-day-matey.html

and then go back and see Toby Ann celebrating a couple of years ago.....too funny!

http://tobyann2006.blogspot.com/2007/09/international-talk-like-pirate-day.html

no, we did not fall off the face of the earth!

2009-09-18T09:30:00.007-05:00

Pictures from their first day at school

Evie and Daisy

Ruby and Toby Ann

You are probably wondering where we have been! You may have given up on ever seeing a post here again. Let me just say that we have been busy! Very, very busy! Life in a house with so many people just gets hectic. With school out for summer, there was just no time for bloggin'

Now everyone is settled into school (colleges, elementary and preschools) and things are starting to calm down just slightly. Maybe, just maybe, that means that I will have a little time to play catch up in the blog world.

thanks

2009-07-09T08:35:00.003-05:00

At Elmo's for lunch.

We stopped for some yummy!!!! frozen custard and Italian ice after we were all done. Toby Ann's had just a few sprinkles :)

Thanks for the prayers! Toby Ann did great for her tests....even swallowing that yucky barium and being kind of still while they did the x-ray/video thingy of her swallowing and talking. I think the doctors will have the information they need to make some decisions about what future surgery she will need on her palate. we won't hear anything for a couple of weeks. The team will meet and go over the results of the tests and then get back with us.

On another note.....they didn't make Toby Ann go without lunch. So we had a nice lunch at Elmo's (as always when we go to the doc in Chapel Hill). Allyn and I were very excited that we didn't have to fast!

prayers for Toby Ann

2009-07-06T21:45:00.003-05:00

Please say a prayer for Toby Ann tomorrow (Tuesday) as we travel to Chapel Hill to see part of her cleft team. They will be doing some tests (some maybe not so pleasant) to see what the next step (i.e. surgery) should be. She is still struggling with articulation and will need some surgery to make it possible for her to speak clearly. The tests tomorrow will include an air flow test (computerized....won't really know how that one works til I see it) and a "modified Barium swallow" /video fluoroscopy....this one will show how her palate works/moves among other things. It is so easy to take for granted that you have to have air flowing through your mouth (not out your nose) to make certain sounds in speech. Toby Ann's cleft was wide and once repaired, her palate was left short so she has the speech issues.

Toby Ann will be seeing her plastic surgeon, the speech pathologist and the ENT tomorrow in addition to having the two tests. Full day. Pray specifically that she will be calm and cooperative for the tests and that she will do okay without eating or drinking between 8:30 and 3:30 or so tomorrow....consequently, I won't be able to eat then either since she can't!

Thanks for all your prayers and support!

"we bumped heads"

2009-06-21T22:17:00.003-05:00

Toby Ann and Daisy were playing a little too rough (bouncing and rolling around on the couch)the other day.....of course I asked them to calm down and of course they didn't listen the first time.....the next thing I know, they were sitting quietly with ice on their heads! Apparently, they didn't learn their lesson either. The ice blocks made it out of the freezer at least 2 other times that day. No real damage done though.....lucky they are so hard headed! ;)

One things for certain. There are no dull moments around here.

I'm a letter

2009-06-09T20:39:00.002-05:00

Today, I was reading in a Bible study that I've been doing lately and one of the scripture passages referenced in the chapter was 2 Corinthians 3:3. Here are 2 translations of the passage: (I like to look at multiple translations for additional insight)

This is from the New Living Translation:
Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

This one is from The Message:
Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.

So, if my life is a letter, what does it say to the world? Am I really telling the world what Jesus intended?

I have been thinking about this today and I think I am changed for it. I hope I am changed for it. After all, that is the purpose of studying God's word....so I can change. I know I am not "publishing" Christ's letter the way I should but I am praising God that I can learn and grow and work toward all God intends me to be!

So, what does your letter say to the world?

peace

2009-05-28T10:24:00.002-05:00

I was wearing a t shirt the other day that had this on the front. Everyone knows that this is a sign for peace. Not for Toby Ann. She looked at my shirt and said, "that's what you do mommy. 1,2."

She means this ......"you have 2 choices....." which is actually the same as the peace sign. this is how we get through little disagreements. Like when someone is insistent on having a cookie right before dinner (and that person may be ready to have a fit), I can say "Would you like to have a cookie?" (the answer is yes) and then I say something like, "good. then you have 2 choices. you can either choose 2 cookies after dinner or no cookies at all" of course the insistent child chooses 2 cookies after dinner. Works like a charm. So she is right. That is me on the shirt. Peace keeper.

Rubber Ducky, You're the One

2009-05-22T13:20:00.007-05:00

We were so proud of our little ducky. She had her dance recital last Sunday and she did a great job! Last year she wouldn't get near the stage and this year she danced right out there and had a blast! What a difference a year makes. They danced to Ernie's rubber ducky song from Sesame Street and it was adorable. Toby Ann was very proud of herself, too.

catching up....and ice cream

2009-05-22T12:50:00.006-05:00

these were taken at MerleFest at the end of April. Toby Ann is very focused when it comes to ice cream.

Things have been ultra crazy around here. It's a busy time with lots to do and we've been having lots of fun. We go to the playground every evening that it doesn't rain and we've been learning lots of new crafts and games at home on those rainy days. I am going to be adding lots of pictures today and tonight, but I won't bore you by putting them all on both blogs.

Here's my plan: I'll put a few here and then you can CLICK HERE to go to the other blog and see lots and lots more! (later today anyway)

another mouth to feed?

2009-05-11T09:33:00.003-05:00

We caught this little critter sneaking Duke's dinner.....he's a greedy little thing and messy too!

Easter

2009-05-01T13:45:00.003-05:00

I am finally posting some pictures. It has been crazy busy at out house lately and I have not had a minute to post. I have LOTS of pictures to share and I will be adding them as I get a chance. Look HERE and HERE for more Easter pics (no need to post them all on both blogs....I really do need to consolodate at some point.)

Coming soon.....we take our crew to the zoo! sounds fun, right? stay tuned for the festivities

happy birthday to sweet Toby Ann!!!!!!!

2009-04-23T21:38:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was Toby Ann's birthday. Can you believe that she is 4 already?

She has blossomed into the most amazing little girl and we are so proud of her!

She started the day with a birthday celebration at preschool...note the cupcake icing face pictured here....

...then, in the evening we had a party at home. What a loud house full of family! All 8 of us were there, along with grandparents and some family friends. We had a pinata, which was requested by Evie and the girls had a great time trying to get it to open. It was one of those non-violent pinatas that have a bunch of strings and one of them is supposed to open it......well, as you can see(below), THE string that was SUPPOSED to open it, failed in its task and I had to step in. Getting it to open up was no small task! but in the end, the candy fell, chaos ensued and fun was had by all!

Birthday Girl

She huffed and she puffed and she blew the candles out! (Thanks, Allyn, for the beautiful birthday crown)

Warning......I got a new camera for my birthday!

2009-04-17T14:23:00.002-05:00

Just so you know, I got a fancy new camera for my birthday a week ago and I have already taken 853 pictures! I have been so busy snapping new shots that I haven't had time to post......look for many new photos coming very soon!

some sunday shots

2009-04-06T12:36:00.002-05:00

We were down one in this photo....but I almost got a good one of everybody. Daisy just wasn't in the mood to participate so I settled for 5/6. So here are Ruby, Evie, Toby Ann, Tucker and Allyn.

Flying high

Allyn and Toby Ann.....there's some big love!

bubbles

2009-04-06T11:16:00.003-05:00

It hasn't been all that long ago that Toby Ann couldn't do this. Just a few months back she would huff and puff and never get enough air flow to make a bubble. Sometimes she would get one or two bubbles to form, but she couldn't get a bunch like this. About a year ago, Toby Ann had her surgery to repair the remaining hole in the roof of her mouth, in hopes that it would help her speech. We have been amazed in the difference a surgery and a year can make. Now that she isn't losing all of her air flow through that fistula (hole) she can make more sounds for speech and she can blow really good bubbles. She still has a long way to go with more surgeries and lots more speech therapy, but we are so proud and excited to see and hear her amazing progress. Last year this time, Toby Ann was relying on her large sign language vocabulary to communicate with us because her ability to make sounds for speech was so limited. Now her speech is so much better! Praise god for an awesome cleft team and surgeon who made this possible.

sisters

2009-03-31T08:44:00.003-05:00

Allyn came home for the day and boy, were her sisters glad to see her! Daisy jumped right into her arms and held on tight! Allyn was showered with hugs and kisses from all her sisters.

matching again....

2009-03-28T18:27:00.002-05:00

okay, we have entered the realm of matching PJs....what was I thinking?

hello Allyn

2009-03-14T19:53:00.003-05:00

A few days ago, I was talking to Allyn on the phone and Toby Ann and Ruby wanted to talk to their big sister. It was so cute to see how excited they were to hear her voice! Their sure do love her! :)

we could use some prayers

2009-03-14T14:23:00.001-05:00

This has been one of the wackiest weeks ever! But, let me just say that it has been crazy (understandably, I think) at our house these last few weeks.

Let me recap what has occurred in the last 8 weeks at our house(in addition to the usual work, school, church schedules and activities):

Morgan and I traveled to Ethiopia to bring home the girls. Tucker, Allyn and Toby Ann stayed behind and waited for the arrival of their 3 new sisters.

We traveled 33+ hours with 3 children to get home from Ethiopia.

We have worked very hard to overcome temper tantrums, food issues, and other adjustment issues (and praise the Lord we have made GREAT progress!)

Our three new daughters started school (2 in elementary, 1 in church preschool) and they are doing beautifully!

We have had 19 (yes, 19) doctor visits (and the co-pays that go with them) between the 8 of us and had to call 9-1-1 once (complete with 2 ambulances, a fire truck and I have no idea how many first responders-----this was because of a severe blood sugar drop that sent Tucker down for the count). We have had 4 cases of walking pneumonia (2 of which relapsed and had to be treated twice), 3 sinus infections, one bronchitis, one kid with paper stuffed in her ears (both of them), 3 treated for parasites that came with them, 16 vaccines (to get caught up), 13 or 14 blood draws (I lost count), 18 prescriptions, a nebulizer, an injection in my shoulder. We also have 3 referrals to the dermatologist, 2 referrals to the pediatric ophthalmologist, 3 upcoming first dental visits (two of which will result in possibly major dental work), a second round of vaccines for the girls and if that is not enough, on Monday I will have shoulder surgery.
And yes, all of that was in the last 8 weeks and yes, it’s a little crazy around here! God has given us the grace and mercy to get through it all.

Please pray for our family over the next few weeks as I will be recovering from my surgery. I will be functioning for one arm for a few weeks and will be in physical therapy for a while, too. I won’t be able to lift anything (hard when you have 2 three year olds) and I’m sure I won’t be able to drive for a while either. There are many unknowns since they don’t know for sure what they will get into and how many things will have to be repaired in my shoulder. Pray especially for Morgan, who will have to do a lot of stuff that I usually do. Pray for everyone in our hectic household that they would be healthy and happy during this time. Pray for all of us as we continue to adjust to our new family situation and new school environments.

Thanks and blessings,
Melissa

we want to match!

2009-03-11T15:27:00.004-05:00

Toby Ann and Ruby have this thing for matching clothes. The are, after all, virtual twins. In the adoption world, virtual twins are siblings that are less than 9 months apart in age. Well, we thought it would help them with the initial meeting if they had on matching outfits at the airport that first day. Little did I know that I would be creating a monster! now they want to match all the time. Fortunately, I had purchased a few matching shirts for them before we traveled to Ethiopia, so they have a few things that match. So, here they are, matching in pink and matching as Snow White. These girls LOVE each other (and they LOVE allyn).....can you tell?

Fun on the playground with sisters

2009-03-09T23:13:00.004-05:00

Before Toby Ann's sisters came home, she often went to the playground with just mom or dad.....probably kind of boring for her. Now, she has sisters to play with! That makes things much more interesting for sure.

Family photo

2009-03-09T21:05:00.002-05:00

Here we are. All of us. One big (mostly)happy family. It's just HARD to get a picture with everyone smiling at the same time when you have this many people in the picture!

From left to right we are:

Tucker, Allyn, Ruby, Melissa, Toby Ann, Evie, Morgan and Daisy

More fun in the snow

2009-03-03T12:34:00.004-05:00

We had a little more snow around here and the girls had fun! These pictures were taken Monday morning before the overnight snowfall melted away. The ground was nice and white, but after our crew trampled around in the yard for a bit, it was spotty to say the least. Even though there was some mud and the snow didn't stick around, Toby Ann and her sisters had a blast!

snow!

2009-03-01T21:57:00.001-05:00

We had fun in the snow today! Check out the other pictures here

swimming lessons

2009-02-26T13:19:00.002-05:00

Toby Ann and Ruby started swimming lessons this morning with the preschool class at NWPC. Of course, they had to have matching swim suits. This was Ruby's first time in a swimming pool and her first time wearing a bathing suit. She and Toby Ann had a great time and they both did very well.

too sweet!

2009-02-25T10:46:00.003-05:00

Toby Ann just loves her sisters! It is so fun to see the girls developing the sister relationships. Ruby loves Toby Ann, too. They are such cuties! Just look at how cute they are alone........and then see how much more cute they are together!

it's like pinning a herd of jello cats to a tree

2009-02-23T20:59:00.002-05:00

click here to see what I mean

ballerinas

2009-02-21T20:38:00.003-05:00

This morning before breakfast, Toby Ann and Ruby got into the dress up stuff and they instantly became ballerinas......who play ball. They were so cute together! I am loving seeing the transformation in their relationship as they become closer and closer. They are so funny because they want to match all the time (for example: they both had to be ballerinas)...we don't have many matching clothes, but they want to match everyday. too cute!

I love, love, love this picture! My goodness, what sweeties!

Toby Ann had to go and wallow the big stinky (she really needs a bath) dog. Toby Ann practices unconditional love on Phlappjack. She doesn't care how bad she smells....she hugs her anyway.

Silly Sisters

2009-02-18T22:45:00.003-05:00

Toby Ann sure does love her sisters. It's so great to see them all being silly together! Toby Ann waited for many months for them to come home and I can't help but think that these silly moments were what she was looking forward to. I don't know if I have written this anywhere before, but when Morgan and I were first consider the adoption of our three girls from Ethiopia, we decided to ask Toby Ann what she thought about getting a sister. After all, we thought, this is probably something she hasn't thought about at all. The conversation went like this:
Me: Toby Ann, would you like to have a sister?
Toby Ann: yes
Me: How many sisters would you like to have?
Toby Ann (without a moments hesitation): Three of them.

I think the conversation stopped there, because that one left me speechless! She had no idea what we were considering.....the adoption of these three sisters.

This one is for Bobbi

2009-02-17T20:12:00.003-05:00

When I was talking to my dear friend Bobbi tonight, Toby Ann wanted to talk. She took the phone from me and flopped on the sofa in this pose:

dress up, anyone?

2009-02-17T00:06:00.003-05:00

Over the weekend, the girls got into the dress up clothes. Most of the things in there are for little ones like Toby Ann and Ruby, but even Evie managed to get into it.

Cinderella and Belle

That was a hug, not a headlock! Really.

I have to wonder what Ruby was thinking. She looks like she is up to something. She is usually up to something ;)

Sweet feet

Evie found the wigs and hats and had a little fun. She's so cute.

I love you

2009-02-16T22:29:00.004-05:00

Toby Ann's class had a Valentine's Party on Friday and I was able to go and participate. These cute little 3 year olds are such a good group of kids!

Toby Ann.....focusing on the dip

Yummy!

One "I Love You" ........

.....out of many. That's a lot of love!

That's a lot of love, too! Just look at all the Valentine treats in Toby Ann's cubby!

Love, Love, Love, Love

2009-02-13T22:09:00.002-05:00

4 lovely sisters decked out for heart day!

Toby Ann and Ruby....sweet little sisters

2009-02-12T10:32:00.001-05:00

They sure can be sweet together!

Chinese New Year Celebration

2009-02-10T21:37:00.006-05:00

Well, this is a mixed up post! there is a problem with blogger tonight and it will not let me move the photos around like it usually does, so they are all out of whack!

We attended the local Chinese New Year celebration for families with children from China. Toby Ann and all her sisters had a great time. Tucker didn't go, because he was otherwise engaged. Allyn was in town, so she got to go with us!

Since the pictures are all mixed up, I'll just tell you about them as they come and please excuse the random order. For more pictures of our fun evening celebrating Toby Ann's cultural heritage, click here to visit our other blog. You can see some photos of Toby Ann's new sisters celebrating the new year too. By the way, the picture above is of Toby Ann and her dear friend, Olivia hula hooping together.

Here is Toby Ann in her Chinese dress. She looks so sweet!

I posted this picture to show off just how beautiful Toby Ann's little legs are. This may not seem like a big deal to most people, but if you will remember, Toby Ann had fairly severe rickets when she came home from China and her legs looked like parentheses. Now, with a good diet, her legs are as straight as can be with no intervention. Just take a look at the picture below to see what I mean. Keep in mind that those are baggy pants, so you really can't even see how bowed her legs really were!

Toby Ann and her dragon puppet. What a cute craft. thanks Kathy!

Toby Ann making her craft. Sorry for the blurr....they were in perpetual motion!

Getting dressed in her Chinese outfit. She loves to wear these pretty silk dresses.

Toby Ann and some of her friends from China

Toby Ann and all her sisters!

2009-02-02T11:26:00.003-05:00

Toby Ann is just crazy about all her sisters! (she loves her brother, too, of course) Her new sisters love her, too. It is so neat to watch as they grow closer.

She is having to share everything, including mom and dad and all her toys, but she is handling that pretty well for a 3 year old! I am very proud of her.

This is Toby Ann and Ruby working as a team to clean up the mess after dinner. Toby Ann shared the little broom (which she loves to use) so I was very impressed with her sharing skills. There are moments, of course, when she doesn't want to share, but that's understandable. I don't always like to share either! :)

Happy Chinese New Year!

2009-01-26T11:00:00.002-05:00

Happy Chinese New Year! I almost forgot that it was today with all the chaos at our house! I wonder how our new daughters from Ethiopia will like Chinese food? I guess we will see tonight.

We are blessed to celebrate the new year 3 times each year! The usual Jan 1, Chinese New Year in January or February each year and then Ethiopian New Year on September 11! It's so cool to have an international family!

Toby Ann is so awesome!

2009-01-26T10:42:00.002-05:00

I have to take a minute to brag on sweet Toby Ann. While we were away from her for an entire week....8000 miles away, she was amazing. She had never been away from us for even one night and she never even cried! She told Granny that she missed us and that she needed her Mommy, but she never cried about it. She totally understood that we were comng back and that we had to be away from her. I am so proud of my girl! I missed her so badly while we are away and that makes her sweet hugs and kisses all the sweeter.

Also, I want to say how proud I am of my big kids! Allyn and Tucker are so awesome and mature and have such amazing faith. I am so proud of the young man and woman that they have grown up to be and I am so proud of how well they held down the fort while we were away. I missed them SO bad while we were away and was so glad for their hugs when we arrived at the airport. Seeing them made my heart sing.

I am praising God today for my entire family. All 6 of my kids are gifts from God, and with his grace and mercy, we will continue to bond and become the family he designed us to be.

Thanks for letting me brag!

I am beginning to update the Ethiopia blog since we are home and have access to internet :)

follow this link to see and read our story.
http://www.rubydaisyandevie.blogspot.com/

New pictures of the girls......

2009-01-05T22:54:00.004-05:00

New pictures of the girls arrived in my e-mail this evening and I just had to share. Toby Ann was so excited to see her sisters playing soccer. She is now planning to play soccer with them when they come home. Just 11 more days and we are off to bring them home!!!!!

Evie, Ruby, and Daisy

Christmas in pictures - Part I

2008-12-29T22:02:00.007-05:00

this was at Nanny and Pawpaw's house on Christmas morning.
Toby Ann was so excited she kept jumping up when we were trying to take pictures. Allyn and tucker caught her in mid air.....Jessica and Andrea didn't know what to think of our silly girl!

Toby Ann was a little tired by this point in the day. She actually sat on Brittany's lap when it was time for the cousins picture at Granny and Poppy's house.

Our Ethiopia blog

2008-12-28T23:12:00.003-05:00

We have started a blog for our Ethiopia adoption journey! Actually, I started it a while back, but just made it public a day or so ago. At this point, it includes some posts about how we started on this journey and what we have been up to while waiting to bring the girls home. I'll be filling in the blanks a bit and adding details as time permits and of course, if possible, I will be posting while in Ethiopia to keep you all in the loop. Here's the link:

http://www.rubydaisyandevie.blogspot.com/

I will continue to post here at the Toby Ann blog, too.

check out Allyn's blog!

2008-12-28T22:43:00.005-05:00

She's started a blog even though she doesn't really have a lot of time on her hands to post. She recently posted some pictures of the cool Christmas gifts she has crafted for her friends and family. She did a great job of making some neat stuff with a lot of love included. take a look

http://www.heyyallitsallyn.blogspot.com/

Here is a picture or two of the project that she has been working on while at home for a few days:

She is decorating the letters to spell out each of the girls names to decorate their rooms. (that's a lot of letters! She is dong first and middle names) They are really cute! Thanks for helping me out, Allyn.

Merry Christmas From the Francis Family....All 8 of us!

2008-12-22T22:40:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas! Here are the 8 of us....won't it be great when we can all really be together? Just a few more weeks!

Gotcha Day? What's that?

2008-12-17T23:44:00.002-05:00

Well, tomorrow is Toby Ann's second Gotcha Day. If you are not familiar with the lingo specific to the adoption community, you may be wondering what that means. Gotcha Day is the anniversary of the first day that adoptive parents and their child are joined together....the day we GOT Toby Ann. Some families prefer to call it Family Day or Forever Family Day. We use the term Gotcha Day at our house, but we don't use that term a lot. Mostly we say "gotcha day" only around the time we celebrate it. We talk about our first meeting in China and we talk about flying home and we talk about how Mommy and Daddy are Toby Ann's forever Mommy and Daddy. So, I wasn't sure if Toby Ann knew what I meant tonight when I said "tomorrow is Gotcha Day." I decided I would ask her, because to my knowledge, I have never explained the term to her. Well, Toby Ann is one smart cookie. When I said, "Toby Ann, what does Gotcha Day mean?" she said, "Mommy and Daddy get me from Chinese. Take me home"

Wow. I was blown away. Later today I asked her about adoption. We try to make sure that she hears the term often and she knows she "adopted" and that we are "adopting" her sisters, but again, I have never really defined the term for her. I decided I would ask her about that too. When I asked, "What does adopted mean?" her answer was "It means I have a Mommy and Daddy."

Kids are just amazing in their ability to understand.

Introducing..........

2008-12-16T12:10:00.003-05:00

Toby Ann's new sisters

Some of you already know that we have been in the process of adopting 3 sisters from Ethiopia. Because we had an agreement to keep things confidential, we have not been able to post pictures or information about the girls. Our court date was in Ethiopia today and all went well. So.... it's official! We have 3 new daughters and Toby Ann has 3 new sisters and we are a family of 8!!!!!!!

here they are!

Daisy.................Evie............and Ruby

We will be traveling to Ethiopia in a little over 4 weeks to bring them home. Please pray for all of us in the days and weeks to come and praise God with us for this amazing blessing.

update

2008-12-12T12:25:00.002-05:00

Toby Ann is all finished with her surgery. She did very well. We are at home and doing fine at this point. She had a little bit of a rough morning, but she is doing better now....just an occasional outbreak of tears. Thanks for the prayers!

Ya'll pray, please.

2008-12-12T00:46:00.003-05:00

Toby Ann will be having surgery Friday the 12th around 7:30 am.

It's a simple surgery....new tubes in her ears (her 3rd set in less than 2 years) It's a quick surgery, but we wouldn't go through it without plenty of prayer. So, please pray for Toby Ann Friday morning. Please pray that the surgery will go well, that she will be calm and not afraid, and that the tubes stay in a bit longer this time. I'll post again to let you know how it goes.

Thanks!

Toby Ann is Thankful!

2008-12-02T23:26:00.004-05:00

The night before Thanksgiving, Toby Ann was telling us about what she is thankful for. So, we decided to interview her about some of the stuff she had been talking about. She is obviously thankful for everything from her horsey (one of those big radio flyer spring horses) to her monkey to Butchie the not-so-sweet dog (and Phlappjack...the sweet dog). She is also thankful for 3 sisters who are still half a world away, but she loves them already. God has blessed her with a thankful, loving spirit. I think most of us could learn a little something from her example.

Watch this

2008-12-02T00:36:00.002-05:00

Toby Ann has a new habit. She started it a few days ago and we have laughed and laughed! She announces "watch this" and then she does something really random and cute. Yesterday, she started showing us this one particular move.....kind of like a lyrical dance move. We thought she must have seen it in one of her movies or at ballet, so I asked her (as you will see) "Who does that?" Her answer? "Me." So here is an original Toby Ann move....watch this!

Don't you just love how she pauses to kiss the big dog?

Daraja Children's Choir

2008-11-30T22:01:00.002-05:00

last night we had the extreme privilege to worship with the Daraja Children's Choir of Africa at a local church. These amazing boys and girls are from Kenya and each of them is either living in an orphanage or are living in vulnerable situations. They are here for a brief time sharing their faith through music. These incredible kids have the deepest faith in the face of harsh circumstances. If they are going to be anywhere near you I would strongly encourage you to attend. Your hear WILL be blessed by the experience! Here's the link to the website with the tour dates.
http://410bridge.org/daraja/

There are only a few dates left since they will be going back to Kenya in a couple of weeks.

100 things

2008-11-28T00:36:00.002-05:00

100 (random)things I’m thankful for….in no particular order (really random):

1. My Savior
2. Freedom to worship
3. Morgan
4. Allyn
5. Tucker
6. Toby Ann
7. Ruby
8. Daisy
9. Evie
10. Our extended family
11. Latex paint
12. Deodorant
13. Cooking spray
14. Safety
15. Good health
16. Good health care
17. Vitimins
18. Shoes
19. A roof over my head
20. Plenty to eat
21. Clean water
22. Hot baths
23. Electricity
24. Adoption – mine (Ephesians 1:4-6 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.
25. Adoption – the adoption of Toby Ann, Ruby, Daisy and Evie
26. Grass
27. Fall leaves
28. Flowers
29. Pumpkin pie
30. Blue skies
31. Snow
32. Rain
33. Beaches
34. Snow boots
35. A car
36. A job
37. Colors
38. Creativity
39. Art
40. Friends
41. Church
42. The Bible
43. Sunday School teachers
44. Potato salad
45. Psalm 139
46. Windows
47. Computers (usually)
48. Cookies
49. Deviled eggs
50. Soap
51. Flush toilets
52. Dark Chocolate
53. Hardwood floors
54. Spring
55. Fall
56. Our pediatrician
57. Our ENT
58. CWA
59. Soft, white towels
60. Yellow
61. Books
62. Ice makers
63. trees
64. Daisies
65. Photographs
66. Potato chips
67. Farmers
68. The zoo
69. Wagons
70. Music
71. Backrubs
72. Shampoo
73. Smiles
74. Hugs and kisses
75. Blankets
76. Pillows
77. Imagination
78. Antibiotics
79. Blue jeans
80. Prayer
81. Love
82. Hope
83. Forgiveness
84. Flannel
85. Down comforters
86. Red
87. Sunshine
88. Diet Mountain Dew
89. Seatbelts
90. Fireplaces
91. Lotion
92. Missionaries
93. Pastors
94. Bookstores
95. Moose tracks ice cream
96. Vaccines
97. Airplanes
98. Socks
99. Laughter
100. pink

Thanksgiving Day

2008-11-27T21:36:00.008-05:00

We had a fun day with family. It was great to just take the whole day to be a family and be with family.

We started our day at church. The Thanksgiving morning service is always very special.

Here's our family photo from today. We started this tradition the year we were waiting to travel to China to bring Toby Ann home.

Okay....these are the silly pics for the day:

Thanksgiving lunch at Granny and Poppy's house:

No visit to Granny and Poppy's would be complete without going out to see the cows...

After lunch, Toby Ann crashed in the car on the ride home....she was OUT! She didn't even wake up when I took her out of the car and plopped her on the couch.

After we rested up from eating lunch, we went on to Nanny and Pawpaw's for dinner:

Jessica and Andrea ....such sweet smiles.

Toby Ann helped Allyn eat her cake (can you tell by the crumbs on Allyn's sweater?)